Against the Current

9-20-23

I am working out of a Starbucks again because apparently they are spraying more pesticides in the office because the original thirty days they had just wasn’t enough, I suppose.

Part of me doesn’t even care now. I’ve grown used to working at Starbucks and the office feels like the odd place out. In the office I have the other eyes of credentialing associates who know when someone is slacking off. At least in this coffee house I am an independent in a crowd. Nobody knows what work I’m doing, and no one particularly cares. I can sit and chill on my phone with no worries once I finished my work and am waiting for more.

My audits keep coming back good so I’m not worried about the quality of work. But sometimes the quantity is a bit annoying. On some days I am lax and catch up easily because a lot of my files are toward the end of the process, meaning there’s only so much to do. Sometimes it’s just waiting for someone else in a different department entirely to finish a process, thereby making my work responsibilities nothing more than hurrying up to wait. 

And then on other days I feel a bit like I’m swimming against the current, and then my manager assigns me three new files, and I have to finish those before I leave since they were assigned at this specific time of day instead of another, and I have to answer calls while working around meetings. 

The new verification process they instituted at the beginning of the month has mixed reviews from us all. Sometimes it’s very effective, and then other times it’s extremely cumbersome. Always good to know there’s no such thing as a middle ground anymore.

Marie’s parents left after we got home so we actually got some alone time with the kids. It wasn’t much more than eating while we finished Frankenweenie, washing them upstairs, reading a few books, then laying down together. But when it’s just us, and no grouchy in-laws who are bored/tired of each other craving attention and entertainment, that is more than enough.

 

Love you Amelia, Emerson, Marie, mom, dad, sis, kitty

 

-E.B.